Feb. 16: Canadians face fearsome foes

The gold rush for our land’s men’s hockey team in Vancouver starts Tuesday night against Norway (7:30 p.m., CTV, RDS) – so the question I’ve got to ask is how many among Canada’s 23-man roster will remember 2006 in Turin?

Will Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo, goaltenders on that team which finished a horrific No. 7, remember? Will 2006 Olympians Chris Pronger, Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla and Rick Nash remember? Scott Niedermayer? (Team Canada’s captain in Vancouver was selected for the Turin adventure, but had to withdraw because of an injury.)

How about Dan Boyle and Eric Staal, who were picked only as alternates?

You might remember Sweden’s thrilling 3-2 victory in the gold-medal game over Finland, or that the Czech Republic won the bronze-medal game over Russia 3-0.

Where was Team Canada? Gone in the quarterfinal, following a 2-0 loss to Russia.

In Salt Lake City in 2002,

Canada won the gold medal because its best players were at their best. Four years later, the bitter lesson learned was that too many members of the 2006 team were too long in the tooth.

That was then, this is now.

This year’s team is a celebration of the young, of Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and several others. A lot still is expected from veteran goaltenders Brodeur and Luongo, as well as others such as Niedermayer, Pronger and Iginla, but if Canada is to reach the top of the mountain, the young must deliver.

There’s no question that Team Canada will be among the favourites to win it all, if only because they’re playing at home. However, common sense dictates that Russia must be considered the best team.

Is there a better player in the world than Alexander Ovechkin?

I don’t think so. Crosby is a close second, but Russia starts Tuesday night against Latvia with more elite players than any team.

You’ve got Ovechkin. Then you have Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk and Alexander Semin. If you were picking the world’s top-10 forwards, five Russians would be among them.

You want more? Russia’s Andrei Markov and Sergei Gonchar could be the two best defencemen in

the tournament. Take a moment and try to imagine the Big Two on the point during a power play. Scary, right?

Winning at the Olympics, or anywhere else, starts with goaltending. Canada has Brodeur, whose numbers and experience would rank him No. 1. I would take my chances with Luongo in any game, but the

Russians are solid in that area as well with a couple of the NHL’s best in Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov. Add Team USA’s Ryan Miller to the mix, and you’re talking about the five best goaltenders in the tournament.

There’s no question that in a perfect world, Canada and Russia would meet for the gold medal on Feb. 28, and the United States and Sweden the day before for the bronze. Our neighbours to the south haven’t won it all since the Miracle on Ice in 1980, but if Miller brings his “A” game to Vancouver, Team USA could be the surprise of the tournament. Miracles do happen.

Eighteen of Team USA’s 23 players are in their 20s. They’ve got a leader on defence in Brian Rafalski, and there’s the potential of solid offence among the forwards in captain Jamie Langenbrunner, Zach Parise, Patrick Kane, Bobby Ryan, Ryan Malone, Dustin Brown and Phil Kessel.

Obviously, hopes are high for Team Canada, and while playing in front of a home crowd helps, spectators don’t skate, the players do. In any game, mistakes happen, bounces happen, too many penalties happen, bad luck happens. So many things can happen, including an injury to a key player.

What you can be sure of is that if Canada doesn’t win the gold, there will be an outcry that the selection committee erred badly when Washington’s Mike Green and Toronto’s Dion Phaneuf weren’t named to the team. It’s the game most people play. For example, my choice from the Staal family was Pittsburgh’s Jordan rather than his brother Eric from Carolina.

Team Canada goes into the tournament with only gold on its mind.

Anything less would be unacceptable. However, on paper the smart money says Russia has the strongest team and should win its first Olympic gold since 1992.

Still: all together now: Go! Canada! Go!

rfisher@thegazette.canwest.com

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